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Sofyan
Sofyan '''is possibly the most important deity in the Sergastan pantheon, and is extremely revered in broader worship, but also has a major following in Huldra (where she is known as Palita), Vermillia, and Borea (where she is known as either of those or Epsila, usually as a compromise.) She is believed to be the patron goddess and creator of all Fey or all Elves depending on the interpretation. She is the primary national and racial symbol of Elada and Altian elves in general, and worshipped as the main goddess of music and literature in the Common pantheon. Sofyan was conflated and syncretised with the Exalted goddess '''Palita from before the Pact was written. Due to the major similarities between the two, worshippers of her have unanimously accepted they are one and the same entity, and that is the general view of her - hence why she exists in one article. In the field of mythological studies, scholars have not settled on one interpretation of the historical origin of the goddesses - whether Palita came from Sofyan, or whether they both independently originated in their respective locations but had cross-cultural blending of mythology until they resembled each other (Sofyan coming from Palita, however, has been ruled out as possible, since Sofyan worship pre-dates Palita's by millenia.) The little differences between the two are looked over in the day-to-day, because these aren't really contradictory, just different emphasises. They will be broken down here. As a Sergastan Sofyan's main interpretation within the Common pantheon originates from Elada's Sergastan pantheon. She is more music-focused than her Exalted counterpart. Lots of Eladan art depicts her playing instruments, or acting as the ultimate muse for mortal artists. Liberty is also one of her domains in Sergastan and Common worship of her - represented both as a celebration of the civil process (invoked in elections, or when claiming one's rights) and with her patronage for bohemians, rebels, and the alternative free spirits of the world. These two ideas may clash a little - the mild-mannered, put-together members of society dislike the anarchic nature of free spirits - yet both of these groups share Sofyan and discourse about what she means to them. This is just one example of her mass appeal. Sofyan in mythology is a helper and a guiding figure, typically in an uncontroversial form, assisting in heroes' journeys by giving them sagely (and usually cryptic) advice, which they tend to figure out in some clever indirect way during the climax. Origin Myth The Eladans believed that anytime Hyperion, the earth father, had a clever idea, there was a visible little twinkle in his eye. Since he was so big and powerful, each time he had a twinkle as he created the planet with all his little ideas about how the trees should be shaped, how the oceans would move, a twinkling star would appear in the night sky. With each idea released, each twinkling star a piece of knowlege, wit, and hope put in the firmanent, they eventually formed a constellation - a shape of a beautiful maiden, this being Sofyan. She came down to Hyperion, and joined the gods in their primordial days to help create the isle of Sergast, where the Sergastans resided. The Creation of Elves - and the Birth of Lexicon Another famed creation myth concerns the supposed "birth" of her many children, including the elven race. This is unique because Sofyan is usually interpreted as being a celibate, eternal maiden, which for other (usually female) deities seen like that, tends to imply they also won't produce any children. In any other pantheon, this kind of myth would be seen as the fulfillment of a fertility goddess's purpose - yet here, it exists somehow with all of the fertility, reproduction, and labor connotations removed. As the story goes, the world is a place both timeless and chaotic. Hyperion, the earth-father, has just created his eponymous planet, but needed it to be populated. He asked the gods to make creatures for him. One god (sometimes directly named as Gorhelm) dug metal into the earth, and granted it life by stomping a drum rhythm into the ground, because this would make them strong. Because they were dug deep where they could not grow, they came out short and stumpy, and very ugly and stupid. These were the dwarves. Another god (also sometimes directly named as Manos) took out clay from the ground, and made it into a figure, before breathing life into it, because clay is plentiful and there would be many of them, and with its basic brown,, earthy colors, they would all look like one another. However, this made them boring and mundane, unexceptional, and very ugly and stupid. These were the humans (or sometimes with gnomes grouped in as the "Folk", but with dwarves not included.) Lastly, a wicked god (unnamed) took the feces of all the animals and new races, and combined them until they created a big, sludgy, foul-smelling, brutish monster. This was the troll, and it was the ugliest and stupidest of them all. (There are some more troll-friendlier tellings of the story, where the deity made them out of stone because they wanted them to be strong, but they still ended up ugly and stupid. In these versions, which would have been told by more worldly storytellers, the deity is usually named as named as Mal-Ommal, or the 'Mountain Mama', an ancient and powerful orcish fertility totem , who is the embodiment of Ogrishu and who birthed all of the orcs.) Sofyan had a different idea in mind. She did not mash items together - she crafted with perfect precision. She took bits of pure light from the sun, and with each one, told it a piece of knowledge so that it would awake with a spark of inspiration. One by one she formed the first generation of elves, until all the knowledge she wanted known was dotted throughout the planet. (In some tellings, she then gets so tired from this labor she vents all of her exhaust-fueled emotions onto the dirt, crying and bleeding into it until they grew into special plant-people, thus creating Wood Elves, made out of her pure emotions and lifeblood, contrasting with the logic and enlightenment of high elves.) However, there was information she knew which she did not want to share. Esoteric things which could be dangerous or dark. There are three versions of what happened next. In one version, she had secretly whispered those secrets into the high elves, and those secrets are the reason we have shadows. Sometimes the shadows disappear when light is shown on them, or they get absorbed into the darkness and run away - which is how Dark Elves are created. In another version, she whispered these secrets into the void - the night sky beyond the sky, the shadows in the empty blackness of space. These either also became Dark Elves or became Lexicon, her son, the god of mysteries and the patron of the Secret-Keepers. The best storytellers find a way to merge all three stories - the famous thinker Artin differentiated the shadow-secrets that became dark elves as secrets that get revealed, while Lexicon is the coalesced entity of all the secrets no one will ever know. The Creation of Sound and Time Her most famous Eladan myth, other than the elven creation myth, is one which takes place immediately after this event - and it is mostly exclusive to her Sergastan/Common interpretation The world is timeless and in chaos. All the sounds are being emitted at once. The fey are deaf from the noise and going mad. Sofyan rectifies this by teaching them how to make the most efficient order of sounds, and of time. She identifies seven notes among the noise, with which one can create any sound, and any song. She separates all instances of the highest note, and puts them in the first day, naming it “Alma”, the first letter. Then does the same to the second, then to the third. Altogether, it was Alma, Baina, Chi, Dyn, Ekka, Fi, Geema. The rest of the alphabet came after, but it was the first seven that represent the tones of each note, and the tones of the world, and with it the order of the seven days. Sergastan Imagery - the Spirit of Elada In images of her, she is typically depicted with a crown or a tiara, or generally evokes rays coming out of her or from behind her. This seems counter-intuitive with the moon imagery, since rays are associated with the sun, but for Sofyan, her moon imagery is aesthetical symbolism, and not concretely related to any true patronage. The ray/crown symbolism is a strong evocation of her nature as royal - an embodiment of elves as a uniting, ethereal queen-figure. Rays and sun crowns are also a major symbol of liberty in Eladan culture and the broader Kuzey Ortabatz, though this particular representation isn't invoked within the Exalted interpretation. This queenly, ethereal Sofyan evocation can be seen in the "Pan Eladas" image. As an Exalted one In Huldra, though they still see Sofyan and Palita are the same goddess, they emphasize different parts of her. Palita does not have any liberty connotations - though they still depict her with crowns and rays, it's purely an aesthetical identifier, as Huldrans frown on the idea of liberty. Palita is a war goddess, as are many Exalted ones. Her nature as a master strategist, invoked in warfare, isn't as recognized outside of Huldra - though it isn't contradictory with Sofyan's image either, it just isn't as emphasized as it is with her Exalted version. In terms of personality, her cunning is much more celebrated - compared to the more graceful elegance of Sofyan, Palita is seen as having a more darker elegance, richer and even a little seductive in nature, though with an implied sense of danger. Her mythology reflects this - Sofyan is always a helper to heroes in her plots, and Palita shares this, but will do so with a price - usually one with ironic consequences. Exalted Imagery - the Black Witch This is most represented with her black color scheme, which is used primarily in her images as an Exalted one - this is because of her association with magic and "witchcraft" in her representation of knowledge and academia. These aspects are recognized in Huldra as quintessential to their view of knowledge - esotericism and mysteries - but not so in Elada, which explains this difference. This is most evident by the fact that Lexicon, the Sergastan god of mysteries and codes, and Sofyan's son, does not exist in the Exalted pantheon. Interestingly enough, even though most Exalted ones don't share features with other races (as they are their own "race" after all), and even though she was first worshipped in the human-populated areas of Huldra, Palita has always been depicted with elf ears, as a patron of elves. This cunning, wise witch of the esoteric in her black regalia is invoked very clearly in the "Palita" image. Other possible connections The Unseelie Court worship a night goddess named Celeste who shares many similarities with Sofyan, though the crescent symbol is more prominent here instead of just aesthetic, as Celeste is truly a goddess of the moon and night. There have been similarities drawn between Sofyan and the sometimes genderless, but sometimes female chief Kami and national symbol of the Shadowlands, the night goddess Yori-Yumi. The similarity between Sofyan's inexplicable moon imagery and Yori-Yumi's night domain, and the shared focus on cunning (though not necessarily as much emphasis on trickery and subterfuge as the kami), have been pointed out as a possible connection between the two deities being one. So far this interpretation has not gained much popularity in actual worship, the two still kept separate and not even at all remotely recognized by the same cultures, let alone people. However, in scholarly circles, the idea has gained considerable merit. How this connection formed across such a wide oceanic and continental gap is unknown, but the coincidences are too strong to dismiss outright. Category:Deities Category:Goddesses Category:Exalted ones Sergastans Category:Common Deities